Walter Pall's main blog about bonsai and his work with trees from day to day. Lots of good pictures of good trees and lots of valuable information about bonsai.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

effect of aggressive feeding and watering

The aggressive feeding and watering scheme combined with modern substrate has this affect on the growth of trees. At this time of the year my garden seems like the trees are exploding. As it gets warmer within the next tow to three weeks all these trees will be trimmed like sheep. The effect will be very healthy trees which will throw lots of new buds again in summer. If you ever look at the quality of my more mature trees and look at these images than there is a direct co0nnection. the quality comes from letting the trees grow freely.
Results count in gardening, not theories. Pinching back new growth right after appearance is dated horticultural practice. This is so much more effective and so much better for th trees. And it is easier and allows me to care for one thousand trees.

Thank you for this incredible treasure trove of knowledge. The whole site if just incredible how you have taken care to answer questions and present actual proof for what you recommend using photos.I would like to ask you many things as this is my second season of work on Bosai. Have you any thoughts on using Diatomite and sphagnum moss as the base material?thnks jamesb

Mr. PallI am a 22yr old American college student just starting in bonsai.

My tress are at the moment pretty little nursery plants. Currently they are growing in my backyard to develop character(trunk girth).

I live in California's Mojave desert, it's dry and hot. It seems to me that the natural growing conditions of my backyard are not well suited for making big ugly impressive trees. It feels like I'm wasting my time letting them grow back there.

Would I have better results if I dug them out this fall and potted them in lava rock then fertilized/watered aggressively?

The trees will grow better in a container than in a field in your situation. Normally field grown is done to fatten trunks.Actually the big fat trees that you see in picutres on the net are almost all done from big fat trunks which existed already. Very rarely you get a fat trunk from a thin one - it takes dedcades. So look out for fat material whether in a nursery or in nature and you are saving decades.Or change your taste and start to love slim elegant trees.